Millions of jobs got lost when Detroit didn't build what the market wanted... But management liked the fact that Hummers made more profit per unit than Aspires.

Generally, people do not want efficient cars. Because gas is cheap. Huge sales volume still comes from large SUV's and pick up trucks. Not because the manufacturers make more profit. Which they do. But because this is what people want. Because gas is too cheap. The general public in the US has intentionally yet to grasp the inconvenient truth that they are hogging up way more than their fair share of resources.
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The trouble is a long way off. More than a lifetime. So people refuse to face it. Even if the media would allow them to know about it. But it is big trouble. The whole free market world economic paradigm requires constant economic growth. Which is directly tied to energy consumption growth. 0% growth equals deep recession. Prolonged negative growth of any amount equals collapse.
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Crude oil will pass peak and start getting more and more expensive. We will have done not enough to replace it or our obsolete economic paradigm and be caught in an energy trap where it is too expensive to do anything about it.
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Fair warning. If you are reading this, your eyes have been opened. I will let your imagination fill in what happens in 50 - 150 years when we inevitably pass peak oil. Sorry.
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Please read Tom Murphy among others. Who was an Astro-Physicist by trade and all around smart guy who apparently just started to think about things.
.http://physics.ucsd.edu/do-the-math/